Sharpe as a pin! (Sharpe's Eagle - Bernard Cornwell)

Member Name: Welshlad

Product:	Sharpe's Eagle - Bernard Cornwell
Date:	07/04/01 (62 review reads)
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A military based book really is not my cup of tea, and this is why I anticipated not liking this book. However, having read some of Bernard Cornwell’s other stuff, and been suitably impressed, I decided to hold back my reservations and give this book a chance, and am I glad I did so!

Telling the story of Army personnel agent Sharpe (in very much the same vein as the other books, almost becoming a complete series now), a member of the high profile ‘Green jackets’ division and his hugely critical mission assigned to him by his General Sir David Baird, this book tells the story in a completely different way than I had imagined, bringing a very creative and thoroughly entertaining read that I certainly would recommend.

Set in the early 1800’s, Sharpe sets off on this mission to Denmark, where the fate of the Army as it was then, resting in his hands in what is a do or die task of the highest order. Telling every gruelling detail and descriptive beyond what I would have expected, this book (without giving to much of the fairly obvious ending away) tells of a single mans fight for survival and success, and it tells it well!

While the book is not very original in its plot (it has been done on numerous occasions before), and little about the writing style of Cornwell is unique, this book offers the same entertainment value that we have come to expect from Bernard Cornwell’s other titles such as Sharpe’s Tiger and so forth. The storyline develops well, and throughout the book, as the reader you feel you are getting a better understanding of Agent Sharpe as each page passes – the sign of a well written and involving book.

Coming in at around 400 pages, this book rarely loses the speed of progression and an number of sub-plots all add to the overall satisfaction of the book as much as possible, without diverting too far from the main storyline that this book is based upon.

While I did enjoy
this book verymuch, it is by no means Cornwell’s best work, but fans will appreciate the work that has gone into this book and will be suitably entertained, and like me, will not regret their purchase. Being such a new release, this is obviously only available in hardback format, and while this will not come cheaply (my copy cost me £20, although I have seen it on sale for around £15 since!) it’s a worthy investment, and the kind of book I would be likely to read more than just the once.

As I said previously, I never expected to enjoy a book of this style, but having been ‘converted’ by the other Sharpe titles in the past, I knew the same could well happen, and it did. I found myself enjoying this book from cover to cover and would certainly recommend anyone not yet fortunate to read a Bernard Cornwell Novel to check this out. His latest, and a very good one at that!

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